Training.

This weekend has been taken up with me doing my first real Scout Training in over 5 years as a leader. I’m slightly disappointed. Of course Module 16 (Nights away) was fairly extensive, as well as being an intensive weekend.

The course, being the first of its kind, was not well attended, and at some points there were more trainers than attendees meaning the course was not as sociable for those attending than it could have been.

I attended expecting to be given confidence and reassurance, but left feeling disappointed and depressed. I now know that I know what to do in order to organise a “Nights Away” event, however I don’t feel I have any more courage to tackle one than before. Perhaps I was expecting too much, when I expressed my disappointment to the course leaders, they asked what they could have covered that I was expecting, and I didn’t have an answer. I wasn’t looking for content, I was looking to be empowered and encouraged, which I’m not sure was a realistic attitude. Perhaps I was expecting sort of magic teaching technique to banish all my worries through the use of magic.

Apart from not being emboldened to the required degree, what annoys me is that even after spending a weekend of my time revising stuff I already know I have not yet passed the module. To explain there are two parts to each Scout Training module: the course itself and the validation, and it is only compulsory to validate not Maybe there should be a lower burden of validation on those that attend courses than those that seek to validate.

I have three years to validate 17 modules of training, lets hope I can do it.